Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Short track: Poovey takes three of four By Jack Mangus DAYTONA BEACH, MAR. 5-6- 7-8 Texans swep t thre e of the four short track events held before sell out crow ds in Daytona's Memorial St adium. Led by two t im e winner Terry Poovey (Bul) and Jim Rawls with wins Saturday night the Lone St ar State was p reven ted from making a co mp let e sweep of the alway s exciting events by a Wednesday night Novice program win scored by Florida 's Steve Poneleit, Novice only night drew 220 first year riders who were narrowed down to 80 through 37 scratch ' heats and narr o wed down to a 10 ri der m ain even t in eight regular he ats and three semis. The main event was all Poneleits after some first lap handlebar banging and a mid and late race effort by t he eventual runnerup, Ross Eadie. Eadie had earlier diced with third p lace finishe r Lance Cherry . Eddie Sutton saw h is fo urth place position taken away on the last lap when Rory Simmons go t by h im coming out of turn fo ur. Thursday night's program was for Junior racers and those Novices who had qualified from the previous n ight's program. Th e large turnout required 33 scratch heat s, eight regular heats and three semis. Garth Brow topped Larry Beall, Mike Rawls and Tommy Norris in the trophy dash . Main event ac tio n was provided mainly by Juniors Terry Po ovey an d Garth Brow. Po ovey led the first five laps, b u t Brow go t by o n the sixth lap and held off Poovey for th ree laps . Poo vey wheeled his To m m y Conners sponsored Bultaco around Brow on the white flag lap an d knowing th at " ... t he only way I co uld beat him was to keep him o n tha t o u tside line ," d id just th at to score wh at would en d u p bein g j ust the first o f his Dayt ona wins. Mik e Rawls and Mike Gr een hel d down th e 3-4 positions from the second lap on . Fri day night b ro ugh t th e Ex pe rts t o Mem ori al St adium fo r th eir first d irt race o f Sp eed Week, but it was Juni o r rider Terry Poovey who o nce agai n too k the ch ec kered flag. A to ta l of 191 Ex pe rts an d Juniors p osted f or the even t. Following scrat ch heats Mike Eades, Jimm y Mayo , Te rry Poovey, St eve Droste, Hank Scott, Jim Raw ls, Larry Beall an d Bill Kell y t oo k regular he a t ra ce wins. Semi ac tio n provided some of th e most furio us short ttrack racing in ye ars. The first semi was red-flagged afte r some riders unlo aded on th e back straight. The restart saw Steve Freeman on the penalty lin e andJ im my Lee get a holeshot and the win. The second semi was led all the way by Jim Rawls with pressure being applied by Gary Bailey and Mike Eades, who finished 2-3. The final semi was a mind-blo wer. Paul Pressgrove led the first six laps of t he 10 lap go , but was shoved back to third by Dan ny Ho ckie an d Bubba Rush. Hockie and Rush crossed the finish line in what appeared to be a de ad heat, but the nod was given to Ho ckie by referee Freddie Ephrem and starters Phil Dy son and Russ Moody. Jim Rawls topped Jimmy Lee, Hank Scott and Poovey in a three lap t rophy dash an d Husky m ounted Mike J ohnson led Te d Po ovey an d Buck Boren across t he line in th e eon sy . TIle main event was le d in to t urn o ne by Raw ls with t he rem aining nine riders righ t o n his heels. Rawl s an d Terry Poovey crossed the fin ish line a t th e end of lap fou r side by side with Po ove y ta king t he lead for good on th e n ext lap . Gary Bailey (no t the Pro fesso r, but Clov is, New Mexico 's di rt t rac kin ' pri de an d joy) held down the show p osit ion from the second lap on . Poovey had reaso n to smi le as he co ul d walk by de serted pit areas t hat h ad belonged to such short tr ack st ars as Mike Gerald and Darryl Hurst before they we re eli m in ated. Poovey re t urn ed for Sat urday night's ac t ion in h opes of be coming the first rider to score sh ort track victories for three straight nights. Those hopes were dashed by Jim Rawls andJ ay Ridgeway. Heat race wins were scored by Florida's Shane Jones, Jay Ridgeway and his WKR Kawasaki, Team Gringo's Rawls, Canadian Dave Seh i, Honda mounted Bill Ke lly, Califo rnia's Danny Hockie and Chuck Palmgren an d Gr ingo mounted Ted Poovey. First heat winner Jay Ridgeway led the first semi from flag to flag as did Da nny Hoekie in th e second sem i before and after a restart brought ab out. by a heavy get-off suffered by Husky m ount ed Mike Johnson. Rawls returned to action an d posted yet another win in the trophy dash over Ridgeway, Hockie an d Jones. Co rky Keener, m o u nt ed o n the Powell Hassell p repare d ex -Cal Rayborn Harley Sprint, took the conso lation after he got by Buck Boren, the eventua l runnerup, on the third lap. The main event was a h andlebar banging affair between J ay Ridgeway an d Jim Rawls. Rookie Expert Ridgeway hel d off the charging Texan for the first five laps, but o n the sixth go-arou nd J . R. t o o k the lead for good. Th e pair ha d dashed Terry Poovey 's hop es of sweeping the short tracks he completed in, but a third place fin ish coupled with his t wo p re vious wins left the young Texan happy - and a bit wealthier. • Mr. Bones and a longhorn Kaw., the fastest of the fast. Bob Tigert had the horsepower and the hair on the 350s. Results NO V F I N A L MA R . 5 : 1. Steve pcne te lt (Hon ). 2 . Ro ss Eadie (B ul ) . 3. La n ce Ch e rr y ( B ut ), 4 . Ro ry Si mmon s (Yam) . 5. Eddie S utton ( Y am) . 6 . Mike Donoh ue ( Rok ) . 7. Ch uck Bu gb ee ( B ul ) . 8. R ic h ard H olm an ( V am) . 9 . Ken Sarge nt (Kaw). 10. Mike Penl an d. J R / N OV FINAL MA R . 6: 1. Te rry Po o vey ( Bul) . 2 . Garth B r o w (Bu l ) . 3. M ike Rawls (B u l) . 4 . Mike G r een ( Y am) . 5 . L ar ry Beall (PDV) . 6. D an K ir k l an d . 7 . T om N o r r is (B ul) . 8. U n k nown. 9 . John E well (Ya m). 10. Te d Bo od y (Mo n l. E XPERT FIN AL MA R ; -7: 1. T erry Poovey (B u l) . 2. J . R . RawlS (PD V ) . 3 . Gary B a il e y (Kaw) . 4. L a r r y - Beall (PDV ). 5. Dan n y H a c k ie ( K a w ) . 6 . St eve Freeman (B ul ). 7 . B Ubba Rus h (B ul ) . 8 . Billy Kelly (H o n . 9 . Pa ul Pressgrove (Bul) . 10. J immy Lee (Yam). EX PERl" F I N A L MA R . 8 : 1. J .R. Raw ls (PV D ). 2 . Jay Ri dgewa y (Ka w ). 3. Terry Poovey ( B u l). 4 . Larry B ea ll ( P D V) . 5 . Dan ny H e c k le (Kaw). 6 . Joh n G enn a i ( Bul). 7 . Guy McC l u r e raun. 8 . Mike Rawt s (Bul) . 9 . Gary Bai ley ( K aw ) . 1 0 . Re x Beau ch am ( H -D ) . Production race a California benefit By Jeff Harrison DA YTONA BEACH , FLA., MAR. 7 Prod uctio n racing came into its own at Daytona In tern at ional Ra ceway as th ree cla sses o f " street bikes" attacked the famous 3.84 Cook Neilson , fifth overall, was first 750. mile road co urse for the very first t ime. The West Coast do minated every class, le d by big b ike winner, Dave Aldana, in Production racing his first AMA ap pe a ra nc e. Open and 750cc races A slim field of 750cc-and-up bi kes was co mbined in t o o ne 38-mile sprint that post-e n tered Dave "Mr. Bones" Aldana snatched from all the Production racing reg ulars on his Yoshimura Racing 9 0 0c c Kawasaki Z-l. Southern California Action Fo urs rider Bob Endicott got th e jump on the field and pil o ted his Kawasaki Z-J to an ear ly lead , using hi s extreme "h anging o ff" sty le. Aldana closed t he gap, t o ok the le ad co m in g o u t o f tu m one o n lap two and con t in ue d t o bu ild a co m mand ing edge on th e fiel d. Yvo n DuHam el , on an o t her Yoshim ura Racing Kawasaki m ain ta ined his th ir d sp ot Z·J, th ro ugh o u t th e race an d wa s ne ver cha lle nge d by Reg Pridm o re o n a Bu t ler and Smi th 9 0 0c c BMW R9US. Pri dm ore was th e p re-ra ce favo ri te a fte r h is Ontario victo ry _ last seaso n, but the BMWs see med t o be d own on powe r and we re no problem fo r th e ho wling, high -barred Z-Is. TI, e battle of th e edi t o rs that was 15

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